At Camp Wapsie, it's off the grid but in the moment

Counselor Pete Bancks of Marion (left) helps camper Jackson Seering, 11, with his harness at the climbing tower during morning free choice time at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. Campers can boat, climb, make crafts, visit the rifle and archery ranges and other activities during the morning free choice time. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Day campers Darby Lange, 9 (foreground), and Reggan Borchers, 9, look at a tadpole they caught in a net on the shore of the backwaters at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. During the daily morning free choice time, campers can choose from a variety of activities including canoeing, climbing, crafts and archery. While waiting for their turn in a boat, Darby and Reggan joined other campers in looking for wildlife along the shore. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Campers paddle in the backwaters, an oxbow lake that was once part of the Wapsipinicon River, at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

A frog perches near the edge of the backwaters as campers gather at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Counselor Emily Laverty of Cedar Rapids (left) hands a paddle to camper Hunter Van Heiden, 10, as he heads out to kayak in the backwaters at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Counselor Matt Schlegel of Cedar Rapids pushes a canoe of campers away from the dock as they head out to paddle during morning free choice time at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Ava Ringold, 13, works on a bracelet while waiting her turn at the archery range at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

The walls of the camp store are signed by counselors and staff at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Counselor Carrie Pint of Walker rings the bell as campers run for the GaGa ball pit at YMCA Camp Wapsie in Coggon on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. The bell is rung throughout the day to signal campers to move to the next activity or meal. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

COGGON — Children took turns scaling a towering structure — climbing a ladder, then straddling hanging ropes and finally grabbing mounted grips to pull themselves to the top.

On the ground, Pete Bancks, 20, held the rope attached to one of his campers. This summer, he has lived in a cabin with rotating groups of 12 9-year-olds for weeklong stints. At Camp Wapsie near Coggon, they canoe, race turtles plucked from the nearby waters and sing around tall campfires.

Campers don’t spend virtually any time checking a smartphone.

“That’s the really nice part about it — you’re kind of unplugged a little bit,” said Bancks, who grew up in Marion and is a student at Iowa State University. “I’m going to college for computer engineering, so this is like the exact opposite.”

Summer camp, a cherished pastime for many Americans, remains one of the last places children and teens spend their days away from screens. Many children head to school with smartphones in their pockets, use tablets in their classrooms and return home to computers and televisions.

But at camp — 14,000 of which operate in the United States, according to the American Camp Association — kids are almost entirely disconnected from electronics.

“It’s just a break from everything else,” said Olivia Davenport, 13, as she waited her turn to scale the tower. Her friends, who all attend North Central Junior High in North Liberty, agreed: it’s a break from reality, from parents, from the digital world.

“You have a schedule, you’re actually out doing things,” said Lauren Maras, 13. “Instead of just sitting on your iPad watching things.”

That’s one of the goals, said Paul Denowski, the YMCA camp’s executive director.

“They learn self-confidence, independence,” Denowski said, noting camp attendance tends to follow the economy and saw a spike last year. “You can see kids have grown after a week here. It’s a fun vacation, but it’s learning, too. It’s not a trip to a water park.”

Down by what campers call the backwaters, a span of shallow water, four 11-year-olds navigated and paddled a canoe while younger children grabbed at frogs in the wet grass. Cicadas chirped in the background as songs played on a stereo — “Queen” and “The Monkees,” part of the week’s “Time Warp” theme.

“Girls!” Darby Lange, 9, bellowed as she pulled her head out of a large white bucket that was home to a small amphibian. “What should we name this frog?”

Darby and other campers gathered around as Camp Director Drew Demery told them the frog — which they named Leo — was a leopard frog. Nearby, the girls’ counselor, Isabel Hogg, 17, sat by the banks of the water. She first came to Wapsie as a 6-year-old camper, sleeping in one of the bunk beds tucked inside of one of the camp’s tall white teepees. Being a first-year counselor has been a nearly lifelong goal, she said.

During some campfires, campers and counselors are encouraged to send their wishes into the fire. Counselors collect the ashes and put them into the next campfire, “so your wishes are always here” at the nearly 100-year-old camp, Demery said.

“Some of those wishes include ‘I hope everyone returns home safely’ or ‘I hope that we stay in touch,’” Demery said. “Some of the older boys request hot babes and Ferraris, but a lot of them are so meaningful. We had a 6-year-old teepee villager, or day-camper, and their wish was, ‘I hope I can grow up and be a camp counselor myself.’ Some of our staff, that wish has come true.”

As her campers gently poked Leo the frog, feeling his soft stomach, Hogg said she returns to Wapsie because it’s an escape from modernity. Most counselors have smartphones at the camp but said they glance at them only before bed or over the weekend, when they have a 36-hour break from campers.

“I’ll come back, like, what’s happened in the world the last week?” Hogg said. “I’m less concerned about what other people are doing.”

Most of the 220 Wapsie campers who stay for a week at a time are returning to the camp for the second, or third, or eighth time. And while some campers arrive from out-of-state or even out-of-country, Demery said some 80 percent of campers are from Cedar Rapids or Iowa City.

While the camp adds some new touches from year to year, much of it remains familiar, campers said. Longtime campers plant kisses on Camp Wapsie’s moose mascot. Ashes, full of wishes by Wapsie legend, are used again and again. Like the generations of children before them who spent their summers at camp, this year’s campers are still unplugged.

For many, “Grandpa came 60 years ago and Mom came 30 years ago,” Demery said. “And now the kids can finally come.”